This disclosure relates to structural panels, for example wall panels used in construction of rolling stock or other vehicles.
Wall panels used in the construction of, for example, rolling stock, train cars, airplanes and the like, need to be rigid, light weight and fire resistant. Current practice in the rolling stock industry is to use aluminum honeycomb panels as construction panels. As the rail industry moves to faster trains it also needs lighter products to achieve this target, hence the industry has opted to use aluminum honeycomb panel, wherever light weight nearly flat paneling is needed, such as external paneling.
Aluminum honeycomb panels have some further disadvantages in that the shapes to which they can be formed are limited and if the panel is impacted, the aluminum skin & core can permanently dent or deform resulting in a dented appearance. Also being a metal, it has lower corrosion resistance and is a conductor of heat, which are undesirable properties for this kind of application.